Has Art and creativity been squeezed out of the National Curriculum?

[Ingles2]

Following on from the OP with her Art/mark making thread, I've been thinking about this a lot recently...
As a creative, working in the Arts, I've always encouraged my boys to be creative with all kinds of media.
This week I was asked to go into ds2's class to help make some Xmas craft to sell to the parents. All the dc had to do was to stick coloured tissue paper onto a jar and decorate with some glitter to make a tea light.
To put it bluntly, I was completely gobsmacked. Hardly any knew what to do, I'm talking maybe 3 out of 30... The rest sat there waiting for step by step instructions on how to cut the paper, stick it on, decorate it, what colour they should use, where should they put the glitter etc etc
These are yr4/5 children.
So, why is this?
Is it because there is no room for creativity in the classroom?
Is it because we as parents have done too much for them?
Is it because when you buy art kits now, they are prescriptive...how to decorate a picture frame etc.
Even lego, which ds1 loves... he follows instructions to build some star wars ship and that's it...it never becomes anything else.
Personally, I think from Junior school level there is nowhere near enough art and free creativity in the
classroom. This is terrible imo, we are not giving them the opportunity to express themselves creatively.
What do you think?

I think that's your school and they aren't all like that. My dds have done some great art work at their school and other forms of creative expression too. Dd2 was in good work assembly yesterday for writing an alternative version of Cinderella with her friends at playtime and then typing it up as a proper script and rehearsing it! All off their own bat, inspired by work they've done.

Do you think NL? This is our second primary, and it's been the same at both. They are very different schools btw, one tiny village, one big junior. I think yours might be particularly good
Still, it doesn't explain the lack of creative thought in the dc...

By Ingles2 Sat 05-Dec-09 09:56:52
" Hardly any knew what to do, I'm talking maybe 3 out of 30... The rest sat there waiting for step by step instructions on how to cut the paper, stick it on, decorate it, what colour they should use, where should they put the glitter etc etc"

I'm not sure if this is confined to art and creativity. Universities are complaining that the NC has produced a generation of children (now becoming adults) who need step by step instructions. Hopefully the new Primary Curriculum Thinking Primary will address this problem.

That's really interesting Mrz... I'm not even slightly surprised. Saddened but not surprised.
I can see it in my own children.. I have 2 boys. The youngest is an independent thinker and really creative.
ds1 on the other hand, needs minute by minute guidance.
He is meant to be G&T as well...so how does this happen? How can you change it?

I think the move in recent years by some schools to teach more "creatively" and the new curriculum which was announced in the Queen's Speech last month will help to address things. My own school introduced Philosophy for Children (P4C) and thinking skills into our curriculum because children required "spoon feeding". I don't see an overnight solution because teachers and children have become familiar with nice safe compartmentalised learning.

I am a NZ trained teacher who came to the UK in 2001 and was shocked at how the children couldn't work independently on a task. If they finished something early they would come and ask what to do now. I taught year 6 children. In NZ I used to give my year 6/7 children a 3 week project that covered Literacy, history, design, etc depending on the topic eg Making Ginger Beer the children had to research, design, make and promote (adverts labels etc.) They had to plan and complete tasks in set times and had meetings with me daily to check progress.
I covered specific skills (spelling, grammer) in short sessions at the start of the day. Each teacher was able to do different things unlike here when every class in the nation is doing the same lessons.
I fear that NZ will go the same way as the UK. I also worry that I have lost my creative spark as a teacher now that I have been in the UK NC system for 8 years. I guess it is good because there is a standard that is being meet but it is so dull.

My current school has a creative week when we go off timetable and the children are allow to be more creative. Last year our theme was a Renoir painting The Umbrellas so the childrem made umbrellas (design) researched, painted, deigned on the computers etc. It was great but only such a short time.

Rest assured Ingles2 there are still schools where art and creativity are a core featureof the curriculum. The bulk of my DCs school life seems to involve "creating" something or other. For example, my childen have made artworks inspired by Picasso, Van Gogh, and Jackson Pollock. The Fire of London involved creating Tudor Houses - one of our local schools even set their houses ablaze to illustrate the effect of loss to the children! My DC have also built models of their idea of the perfect London bus - complete with lasers and rocket powered engines. A study of Romans and celts has produced shields for both armies as well as creating mosaics. All this is interspersed with regular sharing assemblies in which the children demonstrate what they have been learning through drama, song and dance.

I don't know whether this is related but our school seem incapable of letting a child make any decision about their own learning - they are told what to do in detail from the beginning of the day to the end. Rules & dicipline are all important. So it's not surprising that they lack confidence in moving in their own direction - it's just not valued, whereas following instructions very much is.

As a teacher I find this very frustrating. I am lucky that we have an in house art specialist that the children go to 1x a week for the morning, every other 1/2 term. I feel as there is very little space in the day to fit in things like art and DT because there is so much pressure to fit in everything else. Let's see, Literacy, Numeracy, PE x 2, PSHCE, Spanish x2, RE, Science, Word Work, Big writing, Thinking skills, Topic x 2, Handwriting, Guided Reading, ICT, Spelling Test, Music, DT and Art. That is a normal week, which we have very few of (Black History month, Friendship week etc etc).
Obviously we try to fit things into our teaching through theme etc. but it is difficult! Sometimes I wish that I had more 'space'.

ingles - does this follow on from zebramummy's thread?? nice to see that some posters have toned down their views a bit as i think they were really harsh on her and i think that she did have a valid point.

My kids do masses of art and craft at school

DD is in Y3 and they do at least a couple of art sessions a week, plus other craft type tasks via other lessons, including english, DT, etc.

I work in a Y1 class and we have an art and craft table out, ready for any child to use, every morning. It is a popular activity.